Hilarious Kid Gift Requests: The Year I Asked Santa for a Hamburger

When it comes to little kids asking for silly, impossible, and/or utterly confounding things for Christmas, I say, "Bring it on!," probably because my parents have always been down for attempting to fulfill off-the-wall gift requests. One year they even snuck downstairs early to cook the hamburger I'd asked Santa for…

I must have been 3 or 4, because I became a vegetarian when I was 5 and learned where meat comes from. But even before that I had never been much of a meat-eater, which is part of why this request cracked my parents up so much. It's Christmas Eve, we're all snuggled by the tree, I'm dictating my Letter to Santa to my parents: "a doll, a train set, a hamburger..." It must have been very difficult for them not to completely crack up - or maybe they did, and I was too focused on the Christmas magic at hand to notice.

And so, of course, when I came down the long set of stairs the next morning, there, under the tree, was a freshly cooked hamburger along with the more predictable sorts of gifts. Did I actually eat the burger? I'll have to ask my parents. Maybe it just seemed like something fun to ask for. Another Christmas I asked Santa for, and received, an ice cream sundae. You know, I've been very good this year, and a Christmas Morning Sundae might just be the perfect reward...

When you were a kid, did your family honor, or do their best to honor, any of your strange gift requests? If there are kids in your life, do you enjoy making their weirdo dreams come true? And even forgetting about the kids for a moment, has anyone ever gotten you something truly strange that you mentioned you would like, never thinking for a moment that anyone would actually get it for you?